The present invention relates generally to communication systems, and, more particularly, to a methods and systems for creating transaction usage records.
In today""s communication environment, telephone calls are usually placed through a telecommunication network. When a telecommunication network detects a telephone call, a call detail record, which tracks the usage of services offered by the telecommunication carrier and records various details associated with the call, is created. Typically, the call detail record includes, for example, such items as the called number, the calling number, the date, the time, the duration of the call and other information relating to the call.
The call detail record may be stored in accordance with any one of a number of formats, such as, the Data Message Handling (DMH) standard. The DMH standard generally includes five data-containing jackets: an activity jacket, a call jacket, a segment jacket, an event jacket and a leg jacket. Activity jackets contain radio resource usage data, which may include, for example, the frequency on which a wireless device is operating. Call jackets contain a record of the type of services used during a call. Segment jackets contain a record of communication network facility usage data, including, for example, trunk group usage and switch identifier usage. Event jackets contain a record of the time and date the end user accessed the communication network, as well as an authorization identifier. Finally, leg jackets contain a record concerning the routing of the call.
However, the DMH standard typically records data concerning voice calls, and may not address other telephone services, including, for example, email services, paging services, end user-location detection services, content delivery services, and the services from other types of network elements. Further, call detail records are created after the call is terminated.